Kiddicraft KIDDIZ Figure Pack: Knights KC1410

Kiddicraft's KIDDIZ Figure Pack: Knights contains 114 pieces — five knight figures in distinct armour styles and colours, with swords, axes and shields. Age 5+.

The crane is a myth

Everybody has seen the image: a knight in full plate, so encased that he has to be winched onto his horse, and helpless as an upturned beetle if he falls over.

It comes from a film. Laurence Olivier's Henry V of 1944 shows French knights being lowered onto their mounts by crane, and the scene was so memorable that it entered general knowledge as fact. There is no medieval source for it.

A full harness of fifteenth-century plate weighed around 20 to 25 kilograms — comparable to what a modern infantry soldier carries, and considerably better distributed, because the weight hangs off the shoulders, hips and limbs rather than a single pack on the back.

Men trained in it could mount unaided, run, climb a ladder and get up off the ground. A fifteenth-century French manuscript by Jean Le Meingre describes armoured exercises including turning a somersault and climbing the underside of a ladder using only the hands.

What plate armour genuinely was is expensive. A good harness cost roughly what a small farm did, which is the real reason only a particular class of person wore one — not the weight.

Five knights, five different designs

Distinct armour per figure is the useful part. Five identical soldiers are a unit; five different ones are characters, and a child will name them.

In the Herocraft range

Sets KC1501 (Knight's Castle) and KC1505 (Knight Outpost) are where these belong; KC1409 (Orc Attack), KC1502 (Orc Hideout) and KC1504 (Orc Battering Ram) are the opposition.

Specifications

Pieces: 114 · Figures: 5 knights with weapons and shields · Series: Kiddicraft Herocraft · Age: 5+ · Compatible with leading brick systems